Page 2284 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 4 August 2021
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Recently, I was at Gold Creek’s senior school campus for a smoking ceremony, ahead of the project to expand the school by 200 places in time for the 2022 school year. The expansion is being conducted by Rork Projects as part of the ACT government’s commitment to providing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enterprises with opportunities for government procurement. The students I spoke with at Gold Creek are excited about the expansion and see this as more than just a building project. They see it as an opportunity to further develop their community.
Along with that expansion, we will be opening a new primary school in Throsby and an expansion to Amaroo School for the start of the next school year.
As outlined this week, through my responsibilities as Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, the ACT government is working hard to deliver the growing and renewing public housing program, providing more homes to suit the needs of the ACT community. We understand that one model of housing does not suit everyone.
The growing and renewing public housing program is ambitious. Together with our earlier public housing renewal program, it represents a 10-year investment of over $1.3 billion from 2015 and the renewal of over 20 per cent of the ACT public housing portfolio. The current program builds on the success of the first public housing renewal program and the ACT’s standing as a national leader in the level of provision of public and social housing for the community. Under the parliamentary and governing agreement, the growing and renewing public housing program targets were expanded to deliver 400 new public housing dwellings by 2025, while renewing 1,000 public housing properties.
The government is also committed to providing more dedicated, culturally appropriate, long-term accommodation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, building on the success of Mura Gunya, opened in 2016. Housing ACT worked closely with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body to deliver the second complex, Gundji Gindilan, in Lyons, which opened in December 2020. Work is continuing on the third site, at Dickson, named Ningulangu. Recently I attended a traditional smoking ceremony to witness the cultural cleansing of the Ningulangu site. Ashes from the ceremony will be saved under the foundations to ensure new beginnings for residents.
The ACT government is also on track to deliver the new Common Ground in Dickson. Following the success of Common Ground in Gungahlin, work has been well underway, with an anticipated completion time of the third quarter of 2021-22. The Dickson development includes 40 units—20 supportive and 20 affordable—with a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom dwellings, as well as communal and community spaces, onsite support services and the provision for social enterprise businesses. Last week I visited the Common Ground Dickson site with Minister Vassarotti to see the progress of construction. The building is really taking shape now. I cannot wait to welcome new residents into the building once it is completed next year.
The ACT government continues to look outside the traditional housing scope to provide social housing options across government and the community in order to increase housing support for Canberrans who need them.
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